Countdown to Costa Rica: 4…

Well, in 4 days (96 hours) from the timestamp on this entry, I should be either taxiing down the runway of Toronto’s Pearson International, on my way to Costa Rica – or (less likely) already in the air. I’m really looking forward to it (and hoping to hell that this [CENSORED BY AUTHOR] cold is gone by then): 2 weeks with the parents, the Zoo Version 2.3 (four cats, two of whom I’ve not yet met and 3 dogs, none of whom I’ve met), seeing some of the people I met last time I was down there, meeting some of Mom & Dad’s new friends… going swimming, the sunshine, the warmer temperatures…

(*tag stares dreamily out the window*)

Basically, I’m really looking forward to it.

[Additional Note: RuroBatt Chp. 1.4 will be up sometime today, as soon as I feel I’m focused enough to concentrate on HTML-izing it.]

Posted in Costa Rica, Trips | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Ugh… Miserable…

Which basically covers how I feel today, unfortunately…

First, of course, there’s the headaches from the TMJ… Then Thursday I started getting a scratchy throat. It was worse yesterday – and last night… well, the subject says it all. Stuffed up, scratchy throat, and headache from hell… *sigh*

Only reason I can tolerate being on the computer is because I tend to get so mono-focused on what I’m doing that it blocks the pain from my conscious mind, which is a good thing at this point…

Anyway, just one of those commentaries to let people know why I’m not terribly active at the moment…

Posted in Health | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Lovely End of Shift… *sarcastic tone*

FYI, for anyone with headaches – fire alarms are not good for them. Especially not when you spend ten minutes in an area where said fire alarms are going off.

Not that there was a fire (thank all the gods)… No, it was yet another burst pipe (the first one happened on Dec. 21st, as the city was recovering from the deep freeze I referenced in my entry of Dec. 20th). To make things worse, this was a pipe in the same location as the other one!

I got a call from the alarm monitoring company at 5:40 (am – my shift goes from 11:30pm to 7:30am) to say that the alarms were going off in the other building, so went out into the freezing cold and hightailed it over there to find that water was pouring out of the pipe and all over the small foyer area, plus into the two classrooms and office adjoining it, not to mention out into the attached playground… The fire trucks arrived a minute after I did, but couldn’t do anything (wasn’t a fire, after all), so left. Luckily, I had my experience from December’s incident to draw on, and knew where to go to turn the water off – so did so. The alarms finally stopped at 5:56, at which point I headed back to the main building and worked on contacting everyone I needed to. Then spent the next hour trying to write up my report as well as deal with the students, staff, and deliveries starting to arrive… *sigh*

And my shift started out so well… I was even getting writing done!

Oh well – to help me feel better, I will be posting Pt. 2 of Chapter 1 of Rurouni Battôsai in a few minutes (as soon as I get it formatted), and then will sit back and hope for comments. It’s rather longer than Pt. 1…

Posted in Rants, Stress, Work | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

RK Fic: Rurouni Battousai – Chapter 1 Pt. 1

And now, for the first part of Chapter 1 of Rurouni Battōsai…. (Sorry, Merula, but it was delayed by going out for my sister’s birthday brunch….)

If you haven’t read the revised version of the prologue, please read it now, as there are changes that affect details in Chp. 1 and onwards.

RuroBatt:Chp1 Author’s Notes – Read Me First!

Posted in Fic, Rurouni Kenshin, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

RK Fic: Rurouni Battousai – Prologue (revised)

Okay, I’m finally happy with the way Chapter 1 of Rurouni Battousai is turning out, so I am therefore posting the revised version of the prologue (including author’s notes again – more streamlined this time, however!). Some changes are large, others are much more subtle – but you will need to read this version before reading Chp. 1.

Revised: RuroBatt Author’s Notes – Read Me First!

Posted in Fic, Rurouni Kenshin, Writing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

RuroBatt, TMJ/Weather. & OK, What Planet Are Our IT Guys From?!

First things first – the update on Rurouni Battôsai:

I will be re-posting a revised version of the prologue within the next few days; I’ve made several small/subtle changes to it that are nonetheless important for what follows (after I discovered that the last scene of Chp. 1 had some… ‘problems’…). With any luck, the beginning of Chp. 1 should follow soon afterwards.

Okay, next it’s time for the first of my rants – [CENSORED] TMJ, migraines, and the weather… (Complaining here means that I tend to complain less out loud, which is all to the good, because it also reduces the self-pity factor.)

Migraine has been in existence since last Tuesday night. It seemed to be getting all right Sunday – but then when I woke up Sunday night to go to work, it started with the negative effects on my stomach (not fun). It’s not that I feel that I’m about to throw up, it’s more a semi-mild queasiness, but that reduces my appetite and my energy enough that it makes everything feel worse. So tonight I’m going to try Egyptian Liquorice tea – it’s worked to help settle my stomach before, and I’m hoping it’ll help again. Certainly better than regular tea, which – although the caffeine seems to help with the pain from the migraine – requires milk to be palatable.

What makes tonight worse is the weather. It’s currently about -19C actual temperature-wise – with the windchill, that’s down to -31C. While it’s not as bad as out on the Prairies (*shivers and waves at chiruken*), it’s still quite nasty; and as mentioned below, my type of TMJ (there are two main types, accident & osteo-arthritis, with ‘accident’ having two sub-types) is the osteo-arthritis type. Cold is bad for arthritis. And it doesn’t help that to try to keep warm, I’ve got two layers (my hat flaps and my hood) on over the joint, because that puts pressure on it, and considering that’s what the majority of the pain directly at the joint feels like… Well, I’m sure you get the picture. *sigh* Okay, this rant is now over.

On to the stupidities of IT…

As the subject says, I would really like to know what planet our IT guys come from.

Our (Security’s) computer at work has always had the occasional problem, but last week it was slowed down so badly that it was causing serious problems with part of doing our job. So me being the at least semi-technical savvy person that I am, I went into the Task Manager (yes, *sigh*, we have to use Windoze at work) and checked the processes and the performance ratings – only to find that the CPU was working at 100% capacity, and – are you ready for it? – there were two (count ’em, TWO) copies of Windows running. So, of course, I call down to IT and leave them a message, and let my supervisor know what I found out when she comes in in the morning.

Get to work Sunday night, read through the log book, and blink at the entry concerning the computer. Re-read it. No change. Re-read a third time to be certain.

Apparently (this is what the IT guys said), the computer has a virus that occurred at installation because Windows wasn’t installed properly. As a result, we have to get a new computer.

*blink*

My immediate reaction to this? Worst-case scenario: copy the documents and data to a CD, or to the server, re-format the hard drive, and re-install Windows. But no, we have to get a completely new computer.

*shakes head and sighs*

I don’t think much of our IT department – and this has sent my opinion plummeting down to the basement.

Anyway, to those who have managed to read this far – I count myself amazed. Wasn’t sure my rants were that interesting…

Hope everyone’s having a good day…

Posted in Fic, Health, Rants, Rurouni Kenshin, Weather, Work | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment